Change your body by changing your mind – get ready for real weight loss

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CHARACTERISTIC It\’s starting to heat up outside and as summer approaches, losing weight tends to be on the minds of many. Each of the millions of people who anxiously try to lose weight each year does so for a multitude of life-enhancing reasons. They want to have healthier hearts, feel better in their bathing suits, have more energy and less pain, have better sex lives, feel confident in the clothes they wear, or avoid a number of illnesses.

Beginning in the early 1900s, when cutting salons promised to get rid of fat and cigarettes were marketed to women as a weight-loss tool, dieters have been promised an easy fix for shedding their extra pounds. Popular diets have included the banana and skim milk diet, the cabbage soup diet, the sugar diet, and the wine and egg diet. Over the years, dieters have been told to reduce their calorie intake to starvation levels, eat only one type of food, cut out carbohydrates, cut out all fat, eat mostly protein, and eat high in fat. Keeping track of the best way to lose weight can be a house of smoke and mirrors.

Today, barring some extreme viewpoints, the health industry has leveled off, and most experts offer a more sensible solution; whole grains, balanced proteins, fresh vegetables and fruits are recommended, with calorie intake corresponding to activity level. However, most people who have ever tried to lose weight know that having the knowledge on how to create a leaner, healthier body doesn\’t necessarily mean that bad habits will be easy to curb.

While having the knowledge of What to do, a high percentage of people are unable to stick to the eating and exercise habits they know they must follow for optimal health.

The reasons for this are different. Some have a dopamine addiction that they get from eating a particular type of food, repeatedly switching to sugary or salty snacks. Others turn to eating as a go-to activity for coping with boredom or a drop in energy level. Some have certain times of day that push them to overeat or snack, while others may eat to relieve stress or deal with negative emotions. And so many find the idea of ​​changing their diet and exercise habits simply overwhelming. Most people who get frustrated with losing weight are dealing with a combination of these things.

Those who continue to follow a pattern of setbacks or failures with food and exercise will most likely find a long-term solution by attacking the problem from two angles. This is the plan used by clinical hypnotherapists:

Strengthen the mind\’s ability to overcome habits that have been developed and reprogram it for success. To do this, identify the negative points or weaknesses in your eating and exercise habits and work to create new neural pathways that keep you on track with your goals, even in times of overwhelming temptation. Focus on moments of success and allow yourself to be proud of every win to help your mind build interest and excitement, which helps delve into neural pathways more quickly.

Heal and move on from the deeper emotional reasons that are causing the failure. You can work on reprogramming your habits 24/7, but if there\’s an unresolved emotional reason that\’s creating a problem that\’s making you revert to a bad habit on a subconscious level, it\’s quite likely that the new neural pathways you create will remain unused; you will continue to slip into bad habits triggered by unprocessed emotions. If you\’ve struggled with long-term weight loss, success almost always requires you to face the emotions and experiences that drive unhealthy eating.

Often, this boils down to resolving moments from the past. These moments can range from somewhat silly to seriously traumatic, but I almost always find they are connected to a time when the client needed love or security and found those feelings conveyed through the chemicals and hormones created as they consumed food. . The mixture of hormones released during the meal made them feel comfort, calm, happiness and even love. For this reason, food has a simple way of creating feel-good neural pathways when we\’re feeling nervous, unhappy, angry, or lonely.

When I work with a client on this part of their weight loss journey, they often have some insight into the source of their stress. But often, the answers to why ice cream is their nightly vice, why they feel the need to snack when they get home from work, or why they binge in the afternoon are something that is beyond the reach of their conscious mind. Even if they don\’t realize it, there\’s usually an emotional reason that steers their weight-loss ship to doom.

In clinical hypnotherapy, we help identify the key emotions that are holding you back from success, alleviate the reasons these emotions keep coming, and disconnect the attraction to food at those moments. From there, we help you start feeling excitement and interest in the idea of ​​healthy food, exercise, and practicing kindness for yourself while traveling. Your brain allows new habits to start becoming more familiar, natural, and easy.

If you\’ve been struggling to lose weight and would like to continue your weight-loss journey without the help of a therapist, you can deepen your emotional healing with meditation, self-help books, and myriad podcasts. Start by becoming aware of what you are feeling before making the choice to indulge. Work on reducing those feelings by focusing on where the feelings originate, by journaling or talking to a trusted friend.

As you work through your emotions, don\’t forget to keep an eye on the prize. Whenever you want to snack, imagine what life would be like without the extra weight. Allow yourself to connect with your wise and successful future and you will be well on your way to strong and healthy habits.

To enhance your weight loss success through clinical hypnotherapy, contact me for a consultation or appointment by phone or text at 435-429-2560 or email at [email protected].

Written by ERIN DEL TORO, Licensed Clinical Therapist.

This article was originally published in May/June 2023 issue of St. George Health and Wellness magazine.

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